The study of undergraduate language instruction is part of a larger national study of the current status of international studies activities in American colleges and universities. Data are drawn from several annual surveys, analysis of course offerings, a random sampling of transcripts, and general requests for information from college presidents.…

The benefits of learning a foreign language and arguments in support of language requirements in the college curriculum are discussed. The arguments concerning the acquisition of indirect benefits not inherent in the language skill itself through the learning of a foreign language prove inconvincing and only serve to divert one's attention from…